Brick Breaker Breaks Me

I'm sure a lot of you have seen, heard of, or are aware of the existence of the style of game where you have a paddle, a ball, and break bricks of various colors with various power-ups. In fact, a good portion of you should know what I'm talking about, as there's been a recent resurgence of this style with a weird modern twist. Since there's a lot of those games, I'll try and be as specific as I possibly can. The title of this game is simply "Brick Breaker", sold on the PS4, Xbox 1, and the PC. I have found a link to the game I'm talking about on steam, so here it is: https://store.steampowered.com/app/539290/Brick_Breaker/
I imagine a lot of you probably haven't heard of this variation unless you really enjoy this style of game, you have PS Now, or something like that. That's probably because this version kinda sucks. A lot. Let me tell you why.

When you start up the game, the first thing you're going to notice is how god damn loud the game is. Naturally, you're going to go into the settings to turn down the sound. But wait, you can't do that, you can only turn it off. Same goes for sound effects and the voices that declare combos and speed. Luckily, if you're fortunate enough to be a PC user, you can use a sound mixer and turn down the application sound via that. But if you're a console user, you're fucked. Sure, you can turn your TV down, but still, why the fuck should I have to do something like that? I don't want to have to edit the sound outside the program, I shouldn't be forced to do that. That's a real upsetting lack of options. Already, you can tell the game isn't the most amazing game ever.

Since you're most likely playing a game like this on your own, you'll be faced with two options: survival and arcade. Arcade is a traditional set of levels that you can beat whenever you want, in order of course. Survival is just arcade, but all in a row. So, not much originality, and not much you can do if you're stuck on a seemingly impossible level. The paddle speed is quite fast compared to versions I've played before, not sure if it's normally this fast and I've just been playing child versions or something, but still, weirdly sensitive.

There are 2 other factors in the game other than the usual "ball bounce and break brick, move paddle", the combo and the speed. Combo is really not a factor or anything, it's just how long you can have the ball bounce without you needing to hit it with the paddle. Speed increases with how long the ball is still alive, going up to a max speed of x10. Which is really fuckin' fast. Normally, this isn't much of a problem. Most times, you have a reasonable gap in between the paddle and the area where the bricks are. Not in this game. The bricks are fucking forcing themselves upon your paddle, rubbing their bricky-ass bodies up against your poor paddle. This is an absolute mess when you're trying to deal with a x10 speed ball. Once again, this is based on my past experiences playing these types of games, so maybe this is the norm. Still, I'm more than quite certain that this is not the norm.

Now, as I am friendless, and wouldn't dare force anyone else to play this game with me, there is a multiplayer mode that I have not explored. From the bit I've seen in trailer videos, it looks similar to ice hockey, but with a brick wall that you have to destroy to score on the opponent. This actually seems like not that bad of a concept, and I might have a poor willing soul play this with me one day, possibly boosting the rating. I will edit this post with that new information if I ever do such a thing.

But, as of right now, this game is just a 4/10. It's not unplayable. It's certainly not good, however. Lack of options, sensitivity, and other factors make this game not that fun. Still, it's fun enough to be a good time killer, or if you're a masochist.